Ath (Belgium) (AFP)

The "Sauvage", carnival character grimaced in black, chains around the wrists, supposed to scare children, parade Sunday at the ducasse of Ath in Belgium, in full controversy with a collective accusing him of conveying "racism and Negrophobia, "said an AFP photographer.

This anti-racist group, dubbed Brussels Panthères, launched a petition in early August against this practice, likened to the "Black Face" and denounced as "a vestige of enslavement".

He called on UNESCO, which was involved in the controversy, in an email sent Friday to Brussels Panthères, which AFP obtained a copy.

The ducasse of Ath, Wallonia (south), exists since the sixteenth century and brings together tens of thousands of people on the last weekend of August, with as a highlight the Sunday procession whose Wild is the star .

The procession was inscribed by UNESCO in 2008 in the intangible cultural heritage of Humanity, integrated into "the element + Giants and processional dragons of Belgium and France +", according to the UN organization based in Paris.

As such, it must conform to principles, wrote in this email Ernesto Ottone R., Deputy Director General for Culture at UNESCO, citing in particular "the requirement of mutual respect between communities, groups and individuals" .

"Be assured that Unesco will remain faithful, in all circumstances, to its founding principles and will not cease to be vigilant in the face of all forms of threats to dignity and human rights," concludes the official.

In the initial mail sent by Brussels Panthères, this collective of a dozen activists identified several incidents or attacks recently targeted blacks in Belgium, including racist songs at a music festival in August 2018.

"It is time to react to the negrophobia raging in Belgium," wrote his spokesman, Mouhad Neghif, asking that the ducasse Ath be deprived "if necessary" of its Unesco label.

The practice of the "Black Face" in several carnivals or folklore celebrations of Belgium - old colonial power in Congo - makes the black populations of the country "an unjustifiable symbolic violence", according to him.

For their part, the municipality and the organizers of the ducasse of Ath said they were open to the debate to "change" the event.

"The population does not live this festive game as a racist act, but wants to hear that it can shock someone outside who does not know the context," told AFP Laurent Dubuisson, the historian who directs the House of Giants at Ath.

Sunday morning at the beginning of the parade, the Wild came to symbolically give his chains to the mayor (PS) Bruno Lefèbvre, in a gesture of appeasement, to the cheers of the crowd. Many people wore a T-shirt "I'm Wild".

© 2019 AFP